Recent Articles

If you don’t ride and train in such a way that your horse learns to listen to your seat, you will usually find that you have to use a lot more hand to get things done.

Control the length of your reins by keeping your thumb closed tightly on top of the reins. If you attempt to do so by keeping ALL of your fingers closed very tightly, you will risk tightening your forearms as well.

"If I can open the frame a bit more [meaning a longer neck], it is easier for the horses to work in their body, and in their back." ~ Hubertus Schmidt

From Facebook fan Kristen Wiley ~ "Going forward into the outside rein in the corners really does prevent loss of balance! Who knew?!?"

Studying riding theory will make you a better rider or trainer in many ways. Trainers need a knowledge base broad enough to enable them to apply the appropriate system for each horse/rider combination in front of them. Riders need to thoroughly understand what they are trying to do and why.

Riding the horse with its head and neck low is only beneficial to the horse if there is a connection over the back.

"The outside rein keeps the horse straight, it controls the outside shoulder, it helps in the halts, it must always be a connecting feel. If the connection is too strong it blocks the inside hind leg. The contact must be elastic in both reins." ~ Gill Rolton

The hindquarters are the engine, but you turn the horse by directing his shoulders.

"For me to work with a horse, I have to like their movement, and the expression they have – and I don’t like mares. With a mare only one person can ride them, if you change the riders with a mare you will always get problems. I am not home enough for this. I have to leave horses at home when I go to competitions, so no mares." ~ Ulla Salzgeber

A calm yet mobile mouth means that the horse is light in the hand, and relaxed through the jaw and neck, which allows for easy swallowing. 

"For me, I love hot horses. The hotter and the crazier they are, the better. Lazy horses make police horses. Not interested. When you get to top level Grand Prix and you have to ride three days, the last thing you want to be doing is kicking through the first test." ~ Charlotte Dujardin

"Today is the time of the cheap read. Read the old books. In the next generation that knowledge will be extinct." ~ George Morris

One of the things that many people don’t know about me is that I hold Bachelor of Science degree in Physics.  I have always been interested in the scientific knowledge of our natural world and how the insights from advanced scientific study enrich our understanding of ourselves, our horses and our relationship with them. (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

From Facebook fan Kathy Wilson Rowe ~ "The more relaxed I can be, the more relaxed and responsive my horse is.......duh!"

From member Kate Pacey Saulle ~ "When the horse knows more than you, open all channels to listen."

The first few steps of any lateral exercise are generally the most beneficial. So shorter periods of lateral work interspersed more frequently into your schooling is often the most productive.

From Facebook fan Rachel Mackmin ~ "Shoulder control established with outside rein and thigh allow us timid riders to let go of that inside rein! It's so hard to give that inside rein to a spooky horse!"

When your elbows leave your sides your shoulders are even more prone to tension.

"Contact has to be just that, contact. People think 'oh this horse is very light I have nothing in my hand' – this is wrong because then you have no contact to his hind legs." ~ Jean Bemelmans

In a good connection, the rider's hands should breathe with the horse's mouth.

Friends, I'd like to share with you the Ultimate Answer to Riding, the Universe, and Everything, and no, it isn’t 42 -- although it felt like it took that many years for me to figure it out.  Until I learned the trick, though, I struggled and struggled and struggled to improve my riding ... especially in dressage. (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

If you are working with a very bold jumping youngster, and have plans to take him up the levels, it is a good idea to have a plan to teach him to be economical when jumping into water and off of drops. This means doing something a little different… and coming back to the trot just in front of your little drops, and bringing him right back to the trot when you land. Doing this in training will produce a horse that will be less extravagant about his jumping efforts off of drops and into water. Which will make it much easier to negotiate the complex combinations that will show up as you move up the levels.

The tempo in the rein back should be the same as in the walk. Don't let your horse rush through the rein back.

How many times have you wished that you could read your horse’s mind or longed for a magic spell to make your horse talk, even for just a minute?  I don’t know about you, but if I had a penny for every time I’ve made that wish, I’d be a millionaire.  Being able to know what a horse is thinking or feeling at a given time would be like the magic key to the equestrian universe, but sadly, no such spell exists.  There is something that’s close, however:  tiny changes in your horse’s behavior, tiny signals that, when you listen, can be the magic key we all wish for. (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

In your Dressage seat, let your legs hang quietly down - close to your horse's sides for easy and intimate communication, but not tight, which would lessen your ability to communicate in a subtle manner.

The fastest way to get where you're going is to take your time.

"The quality of the seat determines whether we can even speak of 'riding', or whether the horse simply has to 'deal with' the load on his back." ~ Kurt Albrecht

Thinking about keeping your head up and still throughout the jumping motion will help to keep your upper body more quietly poised over fences.

"The seat and weight aids are supporting aids. They support either a leg or rein aid, or both. Don’t underestimate their significance though. They are important aids, especially in the fine tuning of advanced horses. The leg and rein aids will fail to achieve their full effectiveness without the support of weight and seat." ~ Christian Thiess   

A good horse will forgive you when you make a mistake - and expects you to do the same.

"For me, the walk is indispensible. If a horse is not walking correctly – extended, collected, two tracks with all the lateral work – then he doesn’t show that he is relaxed, supple, together. I do it all the time, with young horses, with educated horses, I do some lateral work in walk, some extensions, relaxation and collection, half pirouettes, all this before I come into the trot. It makes the horses calm, makes the rider also calm, it makes the rider coordinate his aids – now I need more bending, less bending, re-balance this half pass, it is indispensible. Also indispensible are the breaks in-between with long reins and free reins. We should start every session in walk – for ten minutes, it should be walk. Not just free reins, working in walk." ~ Rafael Soto

"A rider interfering with the rein on the way down to fence is fundamentally dangerous." ~ William Fox Pitt

If you ask for too much angle in any lateral movement (more than your horse can handle at that moment,) you risk impeding the balance and fluidity of the movement, which should be your top priorities.

Riders who put in the time and effort to learn theory will go much further in this sport.